Free Midsummer Heat by Mina Carter Page B

she’d lost touch with that fact under his dominating attitude and her need to be free. She never had been free though. She’d just buried the feeling deep down, so deep she couldn’t feel it, determined to do her own thing.
    Her chin lifted as she used her free hand to wipe her wet cheeks. Now she would do her own thing again, and claim him.
    The front door to the cabin opened, out of sight in the main room but she felt the slight gust of air and the scents that swept in from the forest outside. She turned with a smile on her face, ready to face Max, chide him about being sentimental and tell him she’d decided to stay, but the smile dropped like a stone. The three scents that filled the cabin from the open door were wrong. Two bears and a wolf. Violence and death rode on their coat-tails and brought her hackles up, her wolf ready to break through the skin.
    The coffee mug hit the floor, its contents spilling unseen over the carpet as she ran, knowing she ran for her life.
    * * *
    Kelli was his. After all these years, she was finally his.
    A contented and happy smile spread itself over Max’s lips as he drove back up to the cabin as fast as he dared. The last thing he wanted was to roll the truck or get pulled over for speeding. Neither would be a particular problem. He could play chicken with a freight train and walk away, so a road accident would just mean an expensive bill for his truck.
    And being pulled for speeding would just mean a lecture from the local sheriff, Bob Jenkins. Human in a town full of wolves, he’d long since given up locking any of them up. There was no point. If they’d wanted to, they could simply mangle the bars and walk out. Still, Bob had been sheriff since Max was a kid, so getting a lecture from him made Max feel seventeen again.
    So he kept the truck below the speed limit despite the fact he wanted to floor it and get back to the sweet woman in his bed as quickly as possible. He’d left her there this morning to go and deal with a faulty heating system. Seeing her there, all sleepy and soft, naked under the sheet… It had nearly killed him not to slide back in there with her, but he had a business to run and ducking out on an emergency just wasn’t good. Like with the pack, the buck stopped with him.
    He slid a glance to the seat next to him. As an apology for ducking out on her this morning, he’d picked up breakfast and a bunch of flowers on the way back. He had no clue what they were, but they were pretty with a delicate scent that reminded him of Kelli. She was delicate, all soft skin, silky hair and mouth-watering curves.
    She’d been…she was…perfect. In every way, shape or form. The things they’d done, the way she’d been, submissive and aggressive by turns. The night was etched into his memory for all time. He groaned as the scent of his arousal filled the small truck cabin, his cock hard and aching within a heartbeat.
    He turned the corner onto the private road that led up to the cabin, finally able to pick the speed up. Eager to get back to her. Hopefully she’d still be in bed, or would have just gotten up. She’d be warm and sleepy, pliant and open to the suggestion they should spend the day in bed. He grinned, a wholly masculine growl in the back of his throat at the thought.
    Despite the anticipation and desire surging through his body, Max knew he’d been lucky. Last night he’d lost control, the wolf almost gaining the upper hand to claim the woman they both wanted. Whilst the outcome—his cock buried in her warmth as she writhed in ecstasy under him—was what he wanted, he wanted her to have a choice. He couldn’t…wouldn’t just take her and damn the consequences, even though that was what the creature inside demanded.
    She’d talked him down, gotten him inside the cabin and waited until the man was back in control before surrendering to him. A shudder racked his body, his shoulders juddering against the back of the driver’s seat as the cabin came